Lake Calling The Defensive Plays?

It was believed that when Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach, Raheem Morris jettisoned former defensive coordinator Jim Bates towards the end of last season and took over the reins to the defense and began calling plays he would continue that role for the foreseeable future. Well it now appears that Morris has relinquished the actual play calling duties on game day.

“That’s what he needed to do,” Barber said. “Being a head coach is administrative. It’s pushing papers, unless you’re (former coach) Jon Gruden, and Jon Gruden was a hands-on head coach. (Former coach) Tony (Dungy) was kind of hands-on, but really, he was kind of an administrator handling his team. I think Raheem is better suited being the dirty guy, getting down and drawing up blitzes with (defensive backs coach) Jimmy Lake, being able to call what he wants on Sundays. The guys that knew him before he became a head coach missed that.”

Its kind of surprising, to hear the Morris has decided to delegate play calling duties. But even more surprising to hear that the man responsible for calling the defensive plays is also the same man Morris wanted to hire as his secondary coach a year earlier.

Truth be told, it’s a smart move that should allow Morris to manage the team on game days much better from both a clock management and personnel standpoint.